My Love, my sweetheart swung;
Though stained till now by no misdeed
Save one horse ta'en in time o' need;
(Blue Jimmy stole right many a steed
so Ere his last fling he flung).7
11 Thereaft I walked the world alone,
Alone, alone!
5. 'Marshal's Elm,' so picturesquely situated, is 7. 'Blue Jimmy' was a notorious horse stealer of no longer an inn, though the house, or part of it, Wessex in those days, who appropriated more than
still remains. It used to exhibit a fine old swinging a hundred horses before he was caught, among
sign [Hardy's note]. others one belonging to a neighbor of the writer's
6. Rocky hill and tract of open ground. grandfather. He was hanged at the now demol
.
ONE WE KNEW / 1875
On his death-day I gave my groan And dropt his dead-born child,
as 'Twas nigh? the jail, beneath a tree, near None tending me; for Mother Lee Had died at Glaston, leaving me
Unfriended on the wild.
12
And in the night as I lay weak, 90 As I lay weak, The leaves a-falling on my cheek,
The red moon low declined? The ghost of him I'd die to kiss Rose up and said: 'Ah, tell me this!
95 Was the child mine, or was it his? Speak, that I rest may find!'
'3
O doubt not but I told him then, I told him then, That I had kept me from all men
IOO Since we joined lips and swore. Whereat he smiled, and thinned away As the wind stirred to call up day . . . ?'Tis past! And here alone I stray
Haunting the Western Moor.
Apr. 1902 1909
One We Knew
(M. H.1 1772-1857) She told how they used to form for the country dances? 'The Triumph,' 'The New-rigged Ship'? To the light of the guttering wax in the panelled manses, And in cots to the blink of a dip.2
5 She spoke of the wild 'poussetting' and 'allemanding'3 On carpet, on oak, and on sod;? turf And the two long rows of ladies and gentlemen standing, And the figures the couples trod.
She showed us the spot where the maypole was yearly planted, io And where the bandsmen stood While breeched and kerchiefed partners whirled, and panted To choose each other for good.4
ished Ivel-chester or Ilchester jail above men-3. Allemande is the name of a dance originating
tioned?that building formerly of so many sinister in Germany. To pousette is to dance round with
associations in the minds of the local peasantry, hands joined.
and the continual haunt of fever, which at last led 4. A tall pole, gaily painted and decorated with to its condemnation. Its site is now an innocent-flowers and ribbons ('the maypole'), was danced looking green meadow [Hardy's note). around on May 1 by men (wearing 'breeches,' or
1. Hardy's grandmother. trousers) and women (wearing 'kerchiefs,' or 2. I.e., in cottages by the light of a candle. headscarves).
.
187 6 / THOMAS HARDY
She told of that far-back day when they learnt astounded Of the death of the King of France: 15 Of the Terror; and then of Bonaparte's unbounded Ambition and arrogance.
Of how his threats woke warlike preparations Along the southern strand, And how each night brought tremors and trepidations 20 Lest morning should see him land.
She said she had often heard the gibbet creaking As it swayed in the lightning flash, Had caught from the neighbouring town a small child's shrieking At the cart-tail under the lash. . . .
25 With cap-framed face and long gaze into the embers? We seated around her knees? She would dwell on such dead themes, not as one who remembers, But rather as one who sees.
She seemed one left behind of a band gone distant 30 So far that no tongue could hail: Past things retold were to her as things existent, Things present but as a tale.
May 20, 1902 1909
She Hears the Storm
